Lisp Remediation: /s/ Word Level for Teens — Spelling
Articulation · Grades 6–12 · 8 cards
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Say the word, have the student say it, then build it. The slower pace of spelling is useful for a residual error — a student who is thinking about letters is not monitoring their production, and the sound either survives that or does not, which is informative. Schedule and sophomore are worth doing for their own sake with a secondary student who writes them regularly.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentAfter building each word, the student says it aloud. Wait 3 seconds.Log as correct
- Visual cuePoint to your mouth, or show the mouth picture for /s/, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the word; the student says it right after you.Log as cued
- Placement cueTeeth close together, tongue tip just behind your top teeth without touching them, sides of the tongue against your top side teeth. Send a thin stream of air down the middle.Log as cued
Adjust it
Drop to syllables ('sa' and 'see'), or use fewer cards.
Put each word in a short carrier phrase with no /s/ in it.
Matching IEP goal
Given word cards, Student will produce /s/ in single words in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than a visual cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
The eight teen /s/ words — schedule, sophomore, sneakers, assignment, sports, cousin, December, seniors — as a spelling task. Derived from the flashcard deck, and the spelling is not trivial: schedule and sophomore are among the more irregular words in a secondary vocabulary, and cousin spells the /s/ sound in a way that is not obvious at all.
What to listen for
Watch the production while the letters are being placed. Divided attention is the condition that matters at this age, since a residual lisp is almost always accurate under direct attention and slips in ordinary talk. Notice cousin, where the sound is spelled with an s that looks like it should be a /z/, which trips both spelling and self-monitoring.
Carrying it home
Spelling one word aloud takes seconds. Schedule and assignment are worth having automatic for a student who writes them on every planner page, and sophomore is worth it once a year for the same reason — these are words they will type more often than they say them.
What's in this activity
- schedule
- sophomore
- sneakers
- assignment
- sports
- cousin
- December
- seniors
Questions
- How is this different from the flashcards?
- Same eight words, built from letters. It gives fewer productions per minute and creates the divided attention that exposes a residual error.
- Is it free?
- Yes, no account needed.
- Why does spelling matter for an articulation target?
- It mostly does not — but the divided attention does. A residual error is usually accurate under focus, so a task that occupies the attention elsewhere is a better test than a clean repetition.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.